ode to cesaria evora

if melancholy
had a voice
it would
come
from an island
of volcanic
salt-ridden waves
cast adrift
like nets
floating
free of fish
and men

sadness departs
shedding scales
like notes
falling tenderly
rinsing broken hearts
with sands
of time
calling out to
the sea
forlorn
like the loneliest
lighthouse

blue has no hue
like mornas
a slow mourning
an aching honey
sunlit
dripping in long
drops stretched out
like an eternal morning
sailing
toward empty sunsets

*mornas is the popular music of cape verde, an island nation off the west coast of africa. cesaria is the most well known singer of mornas